Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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Process And Apparatus For The Separation Of Air By Cryogenic Distillation
The present invention relates to a process and application for the separation
of air
by cryogenic distillation.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Very large gas or coal gasification sites may be built in the near future. All
gasification processes require large quantities of high pressure oxygen.
ASU plant sizes have been growing steadily over the last four decades and
there is
no sign for the trend to stop. With plant sizes getting larger and larger,
liquid back-up
issues become impractical or impossible for plant outages lasting for more
than a
few hours.
Current technologies would allow plant sizes up to 7000 metric tonnes of
oxygen per
day. Presently, largest reference plant sizes are between 4000 and 5000 metric
tonnes per day.
Coal gasification in the near future for example may require very large oxygen
consumption reaching as high as 50 000 T/D. Gas-to-liquid plants are another
example with high oxygen requirement in the range of 20 000-40 000 T/D. It
becomes obvious there is a need for an improved and rational production
concept
for oxygen in such large facilities.
This invention provides a new approach for building large facilities requiring
multiple
large trains of oxygen plants. A new concept for cost effective production
back-up is
also integrated in this new scheme.
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SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an
apparatus for the production of nitrogen and of oxygen enriched liquid by
cryogenic
distillation of air comprising a column having a top condenser and a bottom
reboiler, a
first compressor, a second compressor, a first turboexpander, a heat
exchanger, a
conduit configured to send a first stream of air to the exchanger to form a
first cooled air
stream, a conduit configured to send the first cooled air stream to the bottom
reboiler, a
conduit configured to send condensed air from the bottom reboiler to the top
condenser,
a conduit configured to send vaporized air from the top condenser to the first
compressor, a conduit configured to send air from the first compressor to the
column, a
conduit configured to send air to a second compressor and from the second
compressor
to the exchanger to produce a cooled second air stream, a conduit configured
to send
the cooled second air stream to the first turboexpander and from the
turboexpander to
the column, a conduit configured to remove bottom liquid from the column and a
conduit
configured to remove gaseous nitrogen from the top of the column.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided
an
apparatus comprising a conduit configured to send liquid nitrogen to the top
of the
column.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided
an
apparatus comprising a further condenser, a conduit configured to send bottom
liquid
from the column to the further condenser, a conduit configured to send gaseous
nitrogen from the top of the column to the further condenser and a conduit
configured to
remove vaporized bottom liquid from the further condenser.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided
an
installation for the production of oxygen comprising at least one air
separation unit, at
least one apparatus as described and summarized above, a compression means for
sending air to at least one apparatus, compression means for sending air to at
least one
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air separation unit, a conduit configured to remove oxygen from at least one
air
separation unit, a conduit configured to send oxygen enriched liquid from the
apparatus
to a column of at least one air separation unit.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided
an
installation further comprising a conduit configured to send nitrogen rich
liquid from a
column of the at least one air separation unit to the apparatus.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided
an
installation wherein the compression means for sending air to at least one
apparatus
and the compression means for sending air to at least one air separation unit
comprises
at least one compressor connected to the at least one air separation unit and
the at
least one apparatus.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided
a
process for the production of nitrogen and of oxygen enriched liquid by
separation of air
by cryogenic distillation in which a first stream of air is sent to an
exchanger to form a
first cooled air stream, the first cooled air stream is sent to a bottom
reboiler of a
column, condensed air is sent from the bottom reboiler to a top condenser of
the
column, vaporized air is sent from the top condenser to a first compressor,
air is sent
from the first compressor to the column, air is sent to a second compressor
and from
the second compressor to the exchanger to produce a cooled second air stream,
the
cooled second air stream is sent to a first turboexpander and from the
turboexpander to
the column, bottom liquid is removed from the column and gaseous nitrogen is
removed
from the top of the column.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided
a
process comprising sending liquid nitrogen to the top of the column.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided
an
integrated process for the production of oxygen in an installation comprising
at least one
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air separation unit and at least one apparatus operating according to the
process in
which air is sent to the apparatus and to the air separation unit, bottom
liquid from the
apparatus is sent to a column of the air separation unit and oxygen is
withdrawn from
the air separation unit.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided
an
integrated process wherein the process involves at least first and second air
separation
units and bottom liquid is sent to the first air separation unit when the
second air
separation unit is not functioning.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided
an
integrated process wherein air from a compressor is sent to a second air
separation unit
when the second air separation unit functions and to an apparatus when the
second air
separation unit is not functioning.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided
an
installation for the production of oxygen comprising at least one air
separation unit; at
least one apparatus wherein the apparatus is an apparatus for the production
of nitrogen
and of oxygen enriched liquid by cryogenic distillation of air comprising a
column having
a top condenser and a bottom reboiler, a first compressor, a second
compressor, a first
turboexpander, a heat exchanger, a conduit configured to send a first stream
of air to the
exchanger to form a first cooled air stream, a conduit configured to send the
first cooled
air stream to the bottom reboiler, a conduit configured to send condensed air
from the
bottom reboiler to the top condenser, a conduit configured to send vaporized
air from the
top condenser to the first compressor, a conduit configured to send air from
the first
compressor to the column, a conduit configured to send air to the second
compressor
and from the second compressor to the exchanger to produce a cooled second air
stream,
a conduit configured to send the cooled second air stream to the first
turboexpander and
from the turboexpander to the column, a conduit configured to remove bottom
liquid from
the column and a conduit configured to remove gaseous nitrogen from the top of
the
column; a compression means for sending air to at least one apparatus;
compression
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means for sending air to at least one air separation unit; a conduit
configured to remove
oxygen from at least one air separation unit; a conduit configured to send
oxygen enriched
liquid from the apparatus to a column of at least one air separation unit.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided
an
integrated process for the production of oxygen in an installation comprising
at least one
air separation unit and at least one apparatus operating according to a
process for the
production of nitrogen and of oxygen enriched liquid by separation of air by
cryogenic
distillation in which a first stream of air is sent to an exchanger to form a
first cooled air
stream, the first cooled air stream is sent to a bottom reboiler of a column,
condensed air
is sent from the bottom reboiler to a top condenser of the column, vaporized
air is sent
from the top condenser to a first compressor, air is sent from the first
compressor to the
column, air is sent to a second compressor and from the second compressor to
the
exchanger to produce a cooled second air stream, the cooled second air stream
is sent
to a first turboexpander and from the turboexpander to the column, bottom
liquid is
removed from the column and gaseous nitrogen is removed from the top of the
column;
and in which air is sent to the apparatus and to the air separation unit,
bottom liquid from
the apparatus is sent to a column of the air separation unit and oxygen is
withdrawn from
the air separation unit.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided
an
integrated process further comprising sending liquid nitrogen to the top of
the column.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Figure 1 illustrates one new approach of the invention for increasing
production for
backup purposes at lower cost as represented in one embodiment of the present
invention.
Figure 2 illustrates the details of the nitrogen generator in accordance with
one
embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 3 shows one embodiment of the nitrogen generator operated under stand
alone mode to supply nitrogen utility gas to the complex in accordance with
one
embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 4 illustrates a system with a high pressure column, an intermediate
pressure
column, a low pressure column, and an auxiliary column in accordance with one
embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
This invention covers 3 main aspects for the cryogenic process for large air
separation facilities:
1. The choice of the process of the oxygen plant: the objective of this
invention
is to provide an air separation process capable of very high oxygen
production. Another feature of the selected process is its ability to
efficiently
accommodate higher air flow to increase the oxygen production.
2. The economical backup for multiple trains: the purpose of this aspect of
the
invention is to provide a new approach for backing up plant production by
using an auxiliary unit such as nitrogen generator.
In order to reach a very high production throughput a different process scheme
for
air separation plant is needed. The traditional double column process operates
at
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low feed air pressure about 6 bar requiring large adsorption vessels for front
end
clean up to remove moisture and CO2 prior to the cryogenic portion of the
oxygen
plant.
The traditional approach for backing up the production facilities consisting
of several
trains operating in a parallel fashion is to install a full size spare train.
This spare
train or unit can be put in service in a short time to take over the slack of
production
caused by the outage of one of the components of the other trains. Since the
probability of having two outages occurring at the same time is low, it is of
common
practice to have only one spare train to assure the reliability of the
multiple trains. In
some situations, if the start up time of the spare unit must be very short or
instantaneous then all equipment including the spare unit must run permanently
at a
reduced rate; when one unit is shut down then the production rate of the
remaining
units can be increased very rapidly to maintain the overall production.
According to the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for the
production
of nitrogen and of oxygen enriched liquid by cryogenic distillation of air
comprising a
column having a top condenser and a bottom reboiler, a first compressor, a
second
compressor, a first turboexpander, a heat exchanger, conduit means for sending
a
first stream of air to the exchanger to form a first cooled air stream,
conduit means
for sending the first cooled air stream to the bottom reboiler, conduit means
for
sending condensed air from the bottom reboiler to the top condenser, conduit
means
for sending vaporized air from the top condenser to the first compressor,
conduit
means for sending air from the first compressor to the column, conduit means
for
sending air to a second compressor and from the second compressor to the
exchanger to produce a cooled second air stream, conduit means for sending the
cooled second air stream to the first turboexpander and from the turboexpander
to
the column, conduit means for removing bottom liquid from the column and
conduit
means for removing gaseous nitrogen from the top of the column.
Optionally, the apparatus comprises:
- conduit means for sending liquid nitrogen to the top of the column.
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- a further condenser, conduit means for sending bottom liquid from the column
to
the further condenser, conduit means for sending gaseous nitrogen from the top
of
the column to the further condenser and conduit means for removing vaporized
bottom liquid from the further condenser.
According to the invention, there may be provided an installation for the
production
of oxygen including at least one air separation unit, at least one apparatus
as
described above, a compression means for sending air to at least one
apparatus,
compression means for sending air to at least one air separation unit, conduit
means
for removing oxygen from at least one air separation unit, conduit means for
sending
oxygen enriched liquid from the apparatus to a column of at least one air
separation
unit.
The installation may comprise:
- conduit means for sending to the conduit means for sending nitrogen
rich
liquid from a column of at least one air separation unit to the apparatus
- the compression means for sending air to at least one apparatus and
compression means for sending air to at least one air separation unit
comprises at least one compressor connected to at least one air separation
unit and at least one apparatus.
According to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided a process
for the
production of nitrogen and of oxygen enriched liquid by separation of air by
cryogenic distillation in which a first stream of air is sent to an exchanger
to form a
first cooled air stream, the first cooled air stream is sent to a bottom
reboiler of a
column, condensed air is sent from the bottom reboiler to a top condenser of
the
column, vaporized air is sent from the top condenser to a first compressor,
air is
sent from the first compressor to the column, air is sent to a second
compressor
and from the second compressor to the exchanger to produce a cooled second air
stream, the cooled second air stream is sent to a first turboexpander and from
the
turbo expander to the column, bottom liquid is removed from the column and
gaseous nitrogen is removed from the top of the column.
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The process may comprise sending liquid nitrogen to the top of the column.
An integrated process for the production of oxygen in an installation
cornprisese
operating at least one air separation unit and at least one apparatus
according to
the process described above in which air is sent to the apparatus and to the
air
separation unit, bottom liquid from the apparatus is sent to a column of the
air
separation unit and oxygen is withdrawn from the air separation unit.
The process may involve at least first and second air separation units and
bottom
liquid is sent to the first air separation unit when the second air separation
unit is not
functioning.
Air from a compressor may be sent to the second air separation unit when the
second air separation unit functions and to the apparatus when the second air
separation unit is not functioning.
A new approach of the invention for increasing production for backup purposes
at
lower cost is illustrated in Figure 1. As compared with the traditional
approach
wherein a full spare train is provided to assure the production, a simpler and
lower
cost nitrogen generator is proposed to replace the spare cold box. The
nitrogen
generator is designed to operate at similar pressure as the oxygen plants,
about 11
bar in our invention, to assure simple compressor equipment backup. However
other
pressures could be used.
This backup concept using a nitrogen generator can be applied in general to a
multiple trains arrangement of cryogenic oxygen plants. In the following
detailed
description the nitrogen generator is deployed in conjunction with the cold
box
process similar to the one described in Figure 4 of our invention. In Figure
1, the
nitrogen generator separates air into a nitrogen rich stream 205 and a very
rich
liquid stream 200. It is useful to note the composition of the very rich
liquid stream
200 is similar to the composition of the very rich liquid 12 of Figure 4.
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The embodiment of Figure 2 shows the details of the nitrogen generator: a
portion 3
of compressed, cooled and purified feed air 1 at 11 bars is further compressed
by
compressor 24 to form stream 4 at higher pressure. Stream 4 is then cooled in
exchanger 20 and expanded into the distillation column 30 via expander 21.
Another
portion 2 of feed air is cooled in exchanger 20 and condenses in exchanger 32
to
provide boilup to the column. The condensed air 10 thus formed is then
expanded
and sent to condenser 31 to be vaporized at lower pressure against condensing
gas
at the top of the column 30. The vaporized air 11 exiting condenser 31 is then
cold
compressed in cold compressor 22 to form stream 12 and enters the column for
distillation. Column 30 separates feed air into nitrogen rich gas at the top
and a very
rich liquid 50 at the bottom. Nitrogen rich gas condenses in condenser 31 to
yield
liquid reflux for distillation. A portion of nitrogen rich gas 41 is recovered
and warmed
as nitrogen product 45 in exchanger 20. A portion 42 of the nitrogen rich gas
can be
optionally expanded in expander 23 to provide additional refrigeration.
When used as backup unit for the multiple oxygen trains, the nitrogen
generator
receives air 1 from the compressor previously supplying air to the now
shutdown
train, this air 1 is separated into a very rich liquid 50 at about 65 mol% of
oxygen and
a nitrogen stream 41. The very rich liquid stream 60 is sent to the oxygen
plant of
Figure 4 via stream 88. In order to maintain the balance of refrigeration of
both
oxygen plant and nitrogen generator, a liquid nitrogen stream is extracted
from the
oxygen plant via stream 89 of Figure 4 and sent to the nitrogen generator
(stream 40
of Figure 2 ). Since the very rich liquid feed 60 to the oxygen plant contains
much
less nitrogen than air (about 35 mol% instead of 78%), the increase of oxygen
production supplied by the very rich liquid does not increase the nitrogen
flow at the
top of the columns as much as in the case of air. Therefore the system can
generate
higher oxygen flow in the form of gaseous oxygen stream 72. The illustration
of
Figure 1 shows the effectiveness of such system with three oxygen trains:
instead of
having a full spare train treating 1000 units of air, a much smaller nitrogen
generator
treating only 400 units of air which is 60% smaller can be used as a spare
production unit. The concept of air boosting with higher air flow via the
second low
pressure column as described above can be used with this nitrogen generator.
The
net result is by boosting the air flow to about 1300 or 30% above design and
feeding
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the oxygen plant with very rich liquid supplied by the nitrogen generator,
each
production train can output about 50% increase in oxygen production. With only
2
oxygen trains and a nitrogen generator, the total oxygen output is the same as
with
3 oxygen plants. The nitrogen generator backup system is much smaller and
lower
in cost.
During startup and schedule shutdown time, there is a need for nitrogen
utility at
such large production facilities (nitrogen blanket, instrument gas etc.). The
nitrogen
generator can be used conveniently to supply the needed nitrogen utility
during such
period. Figure 3 shows an embodiment of the nitrogen generator operated under
stand alone mode to supply nitrogen utility gas to the complex. In this mode,
all or
part of the very rich liquid is vaporized at low pressure in another condenser
33
located at the top of the column. The vaporized stream 51 is then warmed in
exchanger 20 and exits as stream 52.
The apparatus of Figure 4 comprises a high pressure column 100, an
intermediate
pressure column 101 and a low pressure column 102. An auxiliary column 103 is
also used.
The air feed to this process is at about 11 bar which results in more compact
and
less bulky adsorber vessels. The adsorbers can be used for higher air flow
since the
air is more dense and high pressure is more favorable for the adsorption of
moisture
and 002.
The top vapor flow of the high pressure column is reduced by expanding high
pressure feed air into the auxiliary low pressure column which distils the air
in to a
top nitrogen stream and a bottom liquid rich in oxygen. The auxiliary low
pressure
column operates at a similar pressure to the low pressure column, it is fed by
liquid
nitrogen reflux at the top. This pressure may be lower than, higher than or
equal to
the pressure of the low pressure column. A liquid air stream can be optionally
fed to
this auxiliary column to improve its distillation performance.
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Air 1 at 11 bar is divided into three streams following compression, cooling
and
purification.
One of the streams is stream 8 which cools in the heat exchanger 90 to form
stream
6 which is sent in gaseous form to the high pressure column 100. It is
separated in
the high pressure column 100 into a nitrogen rich stream at the top and a rich
liquid
stream 10 rich in oxygen at the bottom. The nitrogen rich stream condenses in
a first
condenser 91 to yield a first liquid reflux stream. Some nitrogen 42 can be
extracted
at the top of the high pressure column as a product stream and sent to the
heat
exchanger 90 to be warmed.. A portion 11 of the first reflux stream is sent to
the low
pressure column 102 as reflux stream 14 and to the auxiliary column 103 as
reflux
15. Portion 89 of the reflux stream may serve as a nitrogen liquid product.
All or a
portion of the bottom rich liquid 10 is sent to the bottom of the intermediate
column
101 for further distillation. The intermediate column operates at an
intermediate
pressure between the high pressure column's pressure and the low pressure
column's pressure. The first condenser 91 transfers heat between the top of
the high
pressure column and the bottom of the intermediate column. The intermediate
column separates the rich liquid into a second nitrogen rich gas at the top
and a very
rich liquid 12 at the bottom. Part of the second nitrogen rich gas condenses
in a
second condenser 92 to yield a second reflux stream and the rest 40 is removed
as
a gaseous stream and warmed in heat exchanger 90. The very rich liquid 12 is
sent
to the low pressure column 102 as feed. A portion of the second reflux stream
16
formed in the condenser 92 may be sent to the low pressure column as reflux.
The
second condenser 92 transfers heat between the top of the intermediate column
101
and the bottom of the low pressure column 102.
Instead of only expanding the feed air to the low pressure column, a portion
31 of
feed air is expanded into an auxiliary column 103 using a turbine 80. The
auxiliary
column works at a pressure between 1.1 bar absolute and 1.8 bar absolute,
which is
about the same as the pressure of the low pressure column 102.. A portion of
liquid
reflux 15 produced in either high pressure column or intermediate column is
fed to
the top of the auxiliary column as reflux. This auxiliary column 103 separates
the
expanded air 32 into nitrogen rich gas 21 at the top and a second rich liquid
60 rich
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in oxygen at the bottom. The second rich liquid is then expanded and
transferred to
the low pressure column 102 as feed. The auxiliary column 103 can be located
above the low pressure column 102 such that the second rich liquid 60 can flow
into
the low pressure column by gravity feed, or a transfer pump can be used. The
low
pressure column 102 separates its feeds into the oxygen liquid 70 at the
bottom and
low pressure nitrogen gas 20 at the top. The oxygen liquid is pumped to high
pressure and vaporized in the main exchanger 90 to yield the gaseous high
pressure oxygen product 72. A portion 2 of feed air is further compressed in a
warm
booster 84, cooled in the heat exchanger 90,to form stream 3, compressed in a
cold
compressor 82 to form high pressure stream 4 and is used to condense against
vaporizing liquid oxygen product in the main exchanger 90. The fluid 5 coming
from
the exchanger 90 is liquefied and sent to the high pressure column 100.
Part of the feed air 30 at 11 bars may or may not be expanded as stream 33 in
turbine 81 to form stream 34 which is sent to the low pressure column 102.
By feeding a very rich liquid produced in the intermediate column to the low
pressure
column the distillation performance of the low pressure column is greatly
improved
such that significant expanded air flow to the second low pressure column,
combined with significant nitrogen extracted in the high pressure column
and/or the
intermediate column, can be performed with good oxygen recovery rate.
In the embodiment described in Figure 1 the cold compression scheme for 02
vaporization is illustrated: the pressure of the air fraction 2 is boosted by
compressor
84 and then cooled in exchanger 90 to yield a cold pressurized air stream 3,
which is
then cold compressed by compressor 82 to yield stream 4 at even higher
pressure.
Stream 4 is next cooled in exchanger 90 to yield a liquid stream 5 which is
then fed
to the column system. A portion 33 of feed air can be optionally expanded into
the
low pressure column 102 to provide additional refrigeration to the system. A
portion
of low pressure expanded air at the outlet of the expanders 80 or 81 can be
sent to
the columns 103 and 102 by way of line 36 to evenly distribute the air flow to
the
columns as needed.
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The vapor flow rate in the auxiliary column 103 is determined such that the
diameters of the upper sections of the low pressure column 102 are not larger
than
that for any other section of the multiple distillation column system. Here
the low
pressure column 102 has the same diameter throughout as the high pressure
column 100.
The enhancement of the distillation performance provided by the triple column
arrangement of columns 100, 101 and 102 allows us to achieve a vapor flow rate
at
the top of the auxiliary separation column 103 greater than about 50 percent
of the
vapor flow rate at the top of the upper low pressure column sections under
normal
operation .
